---
title: 'Manufacturing Engineer at Specter'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-specter-san-francisco-g75553wbxwx6'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Manufacturing Engineer at Specter

- **Company:** Specter
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2025-10-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/specter/463b9708-1e48-436e-894e-17a014be99e2

## Job description

Company Background:

Specter is creating a software-defined “control plane” for the physical world. We are starting with protecting American businesses by granting them ubiquitous perception over their physical assets.

To do so, we are creating a connected hardware-software ecosystem on top of multi-modal wireless mesh sensing technology. This allows us to drive down the cost and time of deploying sensors by 10x. Our platform will ultimately become the perception engine for a company’s physical footprint, enabling real-time perimeter visibility and autonomous operations management.

Our co-founders Xerxes https://www.linkedin.com/in/xerxes-libsch/ and Philip https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-clark-883a41126/ are passionate about empowering our partners in the fast-approaching world of physical AI and robotics. We are a small, fast-growing team who hail from Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces.

Role + Responsibilities:

Specter is hiring a Manufacturing Engineer to bridge the gap between hardware engineering design and scalable production. You will work at the intersection of rapid prototyping, design for manufacturability, and field deployment readiness. This role is critical to ensure our hardware products can transition smoothly from the engineering bench to pilot production and ultimately to commercial-scale deployments.

Potential responsibilities include:

- Collaborate closely with mechanical, electrical, and systems engineers to design products that are manufacturable, testable, and reliable
- Develop and implement DFM/DFA guidelines and provide feedback early in the design cycle to enable rapid build iterations and downstream scalability
- Design and document manufacturing processes, assembly instructions, and work instructions for prototype and pilot builds
- Specify, source, and deploy tools, fixtures, and assembly aids to enable fast, repeatable builds
- Own the build process for engineering prototypes, including planning, hands-on assembly support, and troubleshooting
- Work with supply chain and external manufacturing partners to ensure readiness for NPI builds and eventual ramp to commercial volumes
- Drive yield improvement and root-cause analysis for assembly, test, and field failures
- Manage and help implement systems for inventory control, traceability, and material flow
- Support the rollout and utilization of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and other production tracking tools
- Establish and maintain quality processes, including inspection standards, process audits, and documentation for compliance and traceability
- Support design transfer activities for moving products from engineering release into production and field deployment
- Collaborate on the development of test processes and validation plans for component and system-level verification
- Travel as needed to suppliers, contract manufacturers, and deployment sites to support builds and resolve manufacturing issues on the ground

Qualifications:

- 3+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, process engineering, or hardware NPI, preferably in fast-paced, hardware-focused environments
- Experience working hands-on with mechanical and electromechanical assemblies, including troubleshooting, rework, and process improvement
- Strong familiarity with DFM/DFA principles and translating engineering designs into scalable manufacturing processes
- Experience managing inventory systems, material traceability, and material flow in manufacturing environments
- Exposure to implementing or using Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and production tracking tools
- Familiarity with establishing and maintaining quality systems (e.g., inspection plans, process audits, CAPA)
- Ability to develop and document build processes, work instructions, and quality inspection procedures
- Comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-iteration environments where designs change rapidly
- Knowledge of tolerance analysis, statistical process control, and basic quality engineering tools
- Excellent problem-solving skills and a collaborative mindset
- Bonus: experience with ruggedized or mission-critical electronics, automated test development, or hardware deployments in challenging environments

## About Specter

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Specter builds and deploys long-range wireless sensing networks with AI-powered real-time alerts and semantic search, creating the perception layer for the physical world.
- **Entity Type**: Private (funding stage not publicly disclosed)
- **Headquarters**: Not publicly available (likely US based on website language and job postings)
- **Founded**: Not publicly available
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- Primary industries: Physical security, critical infrastructure monitoring, industrial IoT, real-time situational awareness
- Target customers: Enterprise and government – including energy companies, data centers, construction firms, ports, stadiums, industrial facilities, and campuses
- Mission statement: "Creating a Software Defined Physical World" – providing instant awareness through real-time alerts, semantic search, and a map-based view of every event

## Products & Services
- **Specter Platform**: A SaaS-based physical intelligence platform that ingests data from long-range wireless sensors (video, thermal, acoustic) and applies general AI (natural language alerts) to detect events such as unauthorized access, safety hazards, equipment anomalies, fires, spills, and perimeter breaches. Features include semantic search, live and historical event detection, and complete situational awareness dashboards.
- **Long-Range Wireless Sensing Network**: Proprietary hardware and software for rugged, wide-area coverage without trenching – deployed across refineries, deserts, offshore platforms, construction sites, and other harsh environments.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue not publicly available; company is actively hiring (Software Engineer – Systems listing) and has a live product across multiple industry verticals.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly available
- **Growth Signals**: Recent website updates as of June 2026; expanding to new use cases (energy, data centers, construction, ports, stadiums); job openings indicate scaling engineering team.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Long-range wireless sensing** that eliminates blind spots without trenching or on-site personnel – a differentiator for remote and harsh environments.
- **General AI with natural language alerts** – users set and query alerts in plain English, lowering the barrier for security and operations teams.
- **Multimodal sensing** (video, thermal, acoustic) combined with real-time analytics for high-fidelity event detection (e.g., PPE compliance, spills, equipment theft, person-down incidents).
- Focus on **critical infrastructure** where downtime or security gaps carry high stakes, creating deep vertical-specific moats.

## Strategic Focus
- Expanding horizontal deployment across energy, data centers, construction, logistics, and campus security.
- Deepening AI capabilities through real-time semantic search and event detection to replace traditional CCTV monitoring.
- Building a “software-defined physical world” that unifies disparate sensors into a single intelligent layer.

## Why Work Here
- Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI + IoT systems that monitor real-world infrastructure at scale.
- Engineering culture likely emphasizes distributed systems, computer vision, edge computing, and high-reliability software (based on job description for Software Engineer – Systems).
- Fast-paced startup environment with a clear product-market fit across multiple verticals.
- Remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated; job posting does not specify location, but likely offers flexibility.

## Sources
1. [specter.co](https://specter.co/)
2. [specter.co/product](https://specter.co/product)
3. [specter.co/industries](https://specter.co/industries)
4. [specter.co/features](https://specter.co/features)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com - Software Engineer – Systems](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/specter/fe26a690-7934-46f4-bce2-8d8c5495a0dc)

## Other roles at Specter

- [Wireless Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/wireless-software-engineer-specter-san-francisco-zvjchm89fzv0) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer - Applied AI](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-applied-ai-specter-san-francisco-p7er9310dx06) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Antenna Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-antenna-engineer-specter-san-francisco-xea2760wvrkw) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer — Fleet](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-fleet-specter-san-francisco-5tm2vh5drfnf) — San Francisco, CA
- [Platform Site Reliability Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/platform-site-reliability-engineer-specter-san-francisco-c9mhsvjd32qq) — San Francisco, CA
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